Did Akshay Kumar skip the IIFA because of Shah Rukh Khan?

Did Akshay Kumar skip the recently concluded IIFA awards at Toronto because he feared the expected hoopla over Shah Rukh Khan's return to the annual bollywood carnival would steal his thunder?

Akshay is the Indian brand ambassador for the Canadian Tourism Commission and has often referred to Canada as a second home of sorts.

He has also pumped in money into an Indio-Canadian joint production named Speedy Singhs which is being shot right now. He naturally enjoys an amount of popularity in Toronto, venue of the just- concluded IIFA 2011.

What's more is that his buddy Riteish Deshmukh was nominated for best comedian for Housefull, a film in which Akshay was the star, and the strong favourite Riteish eventually won, too.

Eyebrows were naturally raised when Akshay went missing from the three- day IIFA weekend. The official reason sent out by Akshay's camp is that he is busy shooting for Housefull 2 in London. However, it turns out that the actor and his wife Twinkle were holidaying in Rome during the past weekend.

A source close to the actor, however, said his family vacation in Rome actually happened before IIFA, which itself throws up a fresh question: why couldn't Akshay squeeze out one day to be in Toronto for the event, as most stars normally do?